How to Determine Drought Tolerance in Plants

November 14th, 2008 by bstanley

How to Determine Drought Tolerance in Plants Determination of drought tolerance of plants is a key factor for classifying plants as “drought -tolerant -plants” There is an increased demand of plants that require less water to grow. This demand is mainly felt by the municipal authorities, industrial units, and agricultural communities around the world. Botanists the world over are seriously trying to cultivate such varieties.Apart from the genetically modified root systems in plants that survive with little water, there is need for more innovative concepts.

A new technique has recently been evolved by the scientists at Australian National University. This new technique is based on the measurement of chlorophyll fluorescence among the plants. This innovative technique helps in quantitative measurement and precise determination of viability in intact, drought-stressed plants.

“Chlorophyll fluorometry” is a technique by which the viability of plants’ maximum efficiency to survive during the water deficient phases becomes measurable. Compared to all other methods like detaching parts of the plants are destructive in nature. In some other methods measuring turgor loss, chlorosis, and few other parameters plants suffer through much stress and the experimentation conditions are extremely sensitive. The “Chlorophyll Fluorescence” on the other hand is a completely non-invasive method and does not require much technical expertise as well.

For us gardeners around the world, this is certainly good news. Evaluation of drought tolerance and performance would be far easier and faster with new tools being developed.

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